Book: Colossians

In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 1:12-14 where the apostle Paul prays that believers might be filled with joyful thankfulness. From this passage, Pastor Babij explains four things God has done for his children that should generate thankfulness as the crowning virtue of your Christian life:

1. God Qualified Us For an Inheritance (v. 12)
2. God Rescued Us from the Domain of Darkness (v. 13a)
3. God Bought Us into Christ’s Kingdom (v. 13b)
4. God Redeemed Us from Our Sins (v. 14)

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

I think we have been transported to Heaven this morning I’d like to thank all our praise groups I think we have three now that put the time in every single week to come and prepare songs and practice them and then bring them to us on Sunday morning that is really a privilege and watching out also for the Theology of the song so the songs are in line with scripture and with the character of God and so we come together and we sing and give praise to God which we ought to do right that’s what we ought to be doing all the time not just Sunday morning you should be singing it in your car on Monday morning and in the office and everywhere you go so let’s uh let’s look like the word of God this morning Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter one and as you’re turning there let me have a word of prayer Father Again you bring us here today on this Lord’s day and we really do thank you father for the blessings you have bestowed upon us and Lord as we think of church history and all those have gone before us who actually died for the word of God for a stand on the word of God so we can sit here in America with our Bibles in hand and we can worship you and listen to your word thank you Lord for that I pray that we would never take that we would always take that as a privilege and never take for granted of it I pray in Christ’s name amen so Colossians chapter one last time we were in this passage I left you with a pile of bricks and mortar and sand in your driveway the problem some of you face is that you still have a pile of bricks mortar and sand in your in driveway and you haven’t done much with it so if you are a born-again Christian and the Holy Spirit of God indwells you and you have been sitting under sound teaching and preaching from God’s word and you have been informed with the knowledge of God’s will you are no longer ignorant you are now responsible and you have to start now working out with the holy spirit of God is working in you because we’re cooperating with God in cell in our sanctification not in our Salvation God’s done it all there and we’re going to see that this morning so so far just keep bring you up to speed we have covered two two of the three headings the first to prerequisite for growth in verse number nine Paul is asking here in verse number nine for something to be given and the verb indicates that Paul is asking for himself on behalf of the Saints he requests is for enlightenment which includes three free prerequisites and it says in verse number nine for this reason also since the day we heard of it we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and of course that is a prayer request that Paul’s offering up before God in behalf of the people we should be offering that up on our behalf on behalf of each other in the church all the time we should be praying for one another this prayer it is so vital for us we all need this right we need these things and with all the Bible based facts and information about the knowledge of God’s will you are now enabled to build something out of those facts by being filled with the knowledge of God’s Will and wisdom and with wisdom you know how to take all the information and all the facts that you hear from the word of God and make something useful out of them actually live them out that’s understanding so you take the bricks and the mortar and the water and you joyfully construct your life by the knowledge of the word of God while he enables you and I to reach the goal of being filled in all spiritual wisdom and understanding and what is the purpose of this growth well in verse number 10 and 11 the purpose of the growth is so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in All respects bearing fruit and every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God of of God so once a Believer starts putting the spiritual knowledge into practice and continues growth begins and growth should never stop once it begins the request for expanded productivity becomes a reality for us in our Christian Life The Saint starts to walk according to God’s will the lights are turned on in other words and so the goal of the knowledge of God’s will is twofold in our passage it’s to bring to bring one’s life into balance because before you were believed your life was out of balance matter of fact your life was chaotic it was chaos secondly in verse number 10 to please the Lord in every kind of way so you should start doing that who can actually please the Lord in every kind of way I can’t say that I do that every day but that is our goal that is the purpose of this knowledge right you learn to do that you start dropping off sin you start dropping off all habits you start actually sometimes you have to lose some people that are in your life because they’re not good for you right you just have to stop reading some things stop going to certain blogs stop posting certain things on Facebook you need to stop doing things that you once did because you find out you know what this doesn’t please God I want to do the things that please the Lord and when you do that you’re going to find that it fuels your joy it fuels your thankfulness of course where does it show up where does this worthy Balanced Life show up well in verse number 10 it shows up in fruit bearing it says here in verse 10 bearing fruit in every good work so fruit bearing for Christians is to be a continuous thing as this fruit bearing takes place more knowledge is required to grow if Christ saved you from sin then the then and only then you have good works to please the Lord remember you can’t have good works to get saved good works comes after salvation because now it’s part of Salvation it’s part of what God gives us so the believer grows burying all kinds of fruits such as it says in verse number 10 the fruit of good works Ephesians tells us bearing fruit in every good work why because where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works I like the passage of scripture in Acts 9 where it talks about Dorcas right she gets sick and all the people are coming and Paul comes of course uh and I think she ends up dying in that passage and Paul comes and the people are the scripture says she was rich in good work well what kind of works did it mention there she was making like quilted things for people and passing them out and making sure she was meeting people’s needs that’s it of course Paul came and raised it from the dead so see that is something that um is part of the Christian walk in life that we are ordained to good works and what’s the purpose of Good Works to show people who God is to have an open door for the gospel it’s not the end in and of itself it is the ways the means of evangelism is to do good works also the objects of good works as people people first the household of God and then everyone else right and who is everyone else our neighbor strangers our enemies all of them were to do good works and what is the realm of good works of the realm of good works is that we are living uh now in a changed realm we have a changed life and so that’s where we live and that’s where it shows up it shows up in you now doing those things for others and then in verse number 10 it shows up in the increased knowledge of God what you find and start growing the knowledge of God you want more you want to know who he is you want to know what he’s done you want to know depth of the so this this remember means an intimate a personal a special knowledge of God the father so as Chris a Christian takes in the truth both understanding and heart are expanded and mental power is multiplied and moral power is Multiplied bearing fruit and growing is accomplished by means of the knowledge of God so Christians grow by spiritual knowledge and only a steady diet of the spiritual fruit from the word of God will continue that growth if you step away from the word of God if you somehow close it don’t read it don’t listen to it don’t meditate upon it don’t expect to grow you stifle your growth by not having the desire for the sincere milk unadulterated uh milk of the word of God coming constantly into your soul to nourish it and make it strong so you can stand firm it also shows up in verse number 11 by the strength that God gives you to live your Christian Life it says strengthen with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of steadfastness and patience joyously so here’s Paul’s request for enlightenment with power so the saint can shine forth the attributes of Jesus in their life and here the Believers being acted upon by God and given the strength to shine forth these qualities in living every day in a very practical way in in two areas steadfastness in circumstances and patience with people and to do it how with joy see that is Supernatural as I said last time so Saints need the knowledge of of the power of God in order to be strong for every kind of steadfastness and patience that we are going to need whether it’s under assaults or whether it’s contrary relationships or whether it’s hostile forces so a Christian can overcome and it could also be what’s happening in the the flow of our nation that Christians are going to become more in the crosshairs of government of officials because we’re getting in the way of their agenda we’re getting in the way so this strengthening takes place as one increases in the knowledge of God and all this spiritual growth turns out to be very practical in every circumstance of life and what is more uh what more does the Christian really need when in the midst of hostile world and is is steadfastness and patience coupled with joy because that’s Christ’s likeness that’s how we’re going to display Christ’s likeness in the world and so it also shows up in verse number 12.

of a heartfelt Joy towards the father giving thanks to the father so without the heavenly father qualifying us being for us we would never we could never be fitted for this growing life of knowledge wisdom and understandings so these truths are all praiseworthy because without the Lord we would not be saved without the Lord we could not grow in this Rich Abundant Life and that’s what it is so I want you to direct your attention now to verse number 12 of chapter one because we’re going to look at this third point and that’s the praise given to whom growth is possible and that praise in verse number 12 is that we give thanks to the father we give thanks to the father we would not have known the father or could not even call upon the father until we actually have come to Christ believed in Christ been forgiven of our sins and now we are brought into the family of God and now we can call the heavenly father our father because we’re now in the family and that’s very important thinking about this and there are four things God has done for us for his children that we should think about every single day if we’re going to maintain a thankful and a joy-filled life these are the things to think about and these things are otherworldly I like when we get to it in Colossians where Paul says you’re living like you’re still on Earth well we are still on Earth but your mind and your heart ought to be in heaven right because I need we need to start thinking like God wants us to think that’s how we become Overcomers all right so there are four things that God has done for us that we ought to be thinking about every single day and these four things generate thankfulness and as a crowning virtue of the worthy Christian Life and it starts with giving thanks to the father joy and thankfulness are a result of victory that has been given to us by God so the next few verses notice the release of praise and for salvation and the source of all spiritual growth in verse number 12 notice what it says it says giving thanks to the father and here’s the first thing who has the first thing who has qualified US to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light so here’s the first thing the father does he qualifies us for something now you see something has already been done for the saints that God has qualified US that means he makes us capable he makes us able he makes us suitable and a very simple way to put it he makes us fit for our inheritance see God made us fit to share in The Inheritance through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have no Fitness in ourselves we don’t have any Fitness in it or or of ourselves for sharing in the inheritance of God’s people we can never have this on our own it is only God who qualifies us for this Christian Life and for heaven none of us none of us are fit for heaven and the point that there was a point in time that this being fit for heaven happened at your conversion and what do I mean by conversion I mean the effectual call of God that inward call the day is the day you heard the message of the Gospel you understood the message you received it by faith in Jesus Christ alone and you repented of your sins and now you’re continuing to follow him that’s real conversion not saying I I profess Christ and nothing happens afterwards I just checked the box and hopefully that’s one of the many things I have to do in life to get to where to heaven to where God wants me to be no God has done it all he’s done every bit of it and so because of that you know God has sent his son to die to procure eternal life for you for whom he predestined these he called and whom he called these he justified in these he just whom he justified these he will glorify so according to the confessions of the church what exactly is the effectual call well here’s the definition by one confession it says in effectual calling is the work of God’s Almighty power and Grace whereby out of the free and special love to his elect and from nothing in them moving him there unto he doth in his acceptable time invite and draw them to Jesus Christ by his word and spirit savingly enlightening their minds renewing and powerfully determining their Wills so as they although in themselves are dead in sin are hereby made willing and able to answer his call and to accept and embrace the grace offered that is conveyed to them that is what it is the effectual call in other words you cannot resist that call irresistible Grace God overwhelms your will by the knowledge of the gospel and the person of Jesus Christ and you say Lord I believe it I believe you died for me in my place as my substitute and that day that’s the change that takes place that day and why is that he saves us to share in the inheritance of the Saints now this is definitely an allusion to the Old Testament concerning the inheritance of ancient Israel remember when they went through the promised land each Israelite once they were done getting all the land that fighting all the battles they were given and inheritance of property and an inheritance is something allotted it is something assigned it is something conferred by right of position and relationship it is not one by one’s own effort else it is not an inheritance our inheritance is salvation this is what we inherit it is what God gives us it’s nothing we can do to get it it is what God gives us it is what we participate in with all the rest of the Saints that’s our inheritance that’s where it starts and that has been given unto us so an inheritance remember goes to those who are in the family if you’re not in the family you don’t get the inheritance just like the Apostle John says in chapter 1 he says but as many as received him to them he gave the right to what to become children of God even those who believe in his name so the Apostle Paul is referring to our Heavenly inheritance also but each believer has a share a lot to them in this life and that share starts with salvation that Saints have a blessed lot of bearing fruit of all kinds be empowered for perseverance to please God in all things but who are the Saints let me remind you again in verse number 12 who qualified us to share the inheritance of the Saints in light it says these are those of course the Saints are those who have been sanctified by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ the book of Hebrews says it in a different way by this will we have been Sanctified or set apart made Saints through what through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all so all believers in Christ than our Saints every believer has been sprinkled with his blood and brought under the shelter of its enduring value every believer has been purged from guilt and condemnation every believer has been invested with God’s righteous righteousness in Christ every believer has been accepted by God the father because of Christ that means therefore every believer is set apart this is a Judicial setting apart and it is made sacred and very dear to God as because we are now his own property and part of his family and so therefore once we’re in the family once we are his possession no one could take us away from his possession no one can rob us from God’s security we are in the palm of his hand right we have a protection that no one could mess with so it is God’s Own act that makes us Saints we don’t make ourselves Saints the church doesn’t make Saints God makes sense but I want you to notice in verse number 12.

it says he makes he qualifies Us in his inheritance of the Saints in light now you say why what’s why that’s dangling there in light you know why because we weren’t in light before we work in complete total darkness about everything about life about what’s the purpose of life what’s important to do in life what happens after life we were in complete and total darkness it doesn’t matter how many degrees someone could attain no matter how smart they are in the upper housing group of their brain they were in darkness they were left to their own whims about thinking about how to solve problems especially the Deep problems of life but here it says to share in the inheritance of the Saints in life now in the Greek it has a definite article there and so that means the definite article would be in the light meaning we’re talking about some light other than the light we normally uh have a relationship with in this world this is God’s light and part of the lot the Saints have is entirely in the light and light is an emblem of Truth and Holiness and Purity and perfection so we have been brought into this new walk onto this new Walking path in which the light has been turned on and now we see things through the prism of scripture we see things through God’s word because before we just walk on the path of Darkness and we know from scripture God’s light First Timothy tells us that he dwells in unapproachable light also in James James says coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow the Bible says that Christ is light Jesus again spoke to them saying in John 8 I am the light of the world he who follows me will not walk where in darkness but will have the light of life see you see now how miraculous the Christian Life is this is not just some small little decision you make and nothing changes in your life when you come to Christ the lights turn on you see everything differently because God Is In You by his Spirit he has given you your word the word of God is light the word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path so see in other words I can walk around I know where the potholes are I know where the stumbling blocks are why because God shows me them he shows me them by the word of God he shows me how to live how not to live what pleases him what doesn’t please him I didn’t know how to do that before no one knew how to do that before until they come to Christ in fact in the New Jerusalem when we get there there’s no need the Bible says of illuminaries why is there no need we don’t need the Sun or the moon for it says in scripture and the city has no need of the Sun and of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God Has illumined It and its lamp is the Lamb the Nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their Glory into it see this is our this is our destiny but it’s also our present you’re going to be walking in a light and you’re going to be continued to be walking the light for all eternity you’re going to see things clearly you’re going to see things just the way they really are and that’s the good Bad and The Ugly and then we can determine what’s the good in the midst of all the other garbage see that’s what God does for us that’s real conversion that should be happening in your life every single day it should be happening in your life and that’s why we have such a hunger for the word of God because we want to know more so now we enjoy the full blessing of God as children of light that’s what Paul said in the thesis to the Thessalonians for you are all sons of Light and Sons of the day we are not of the night nor of the darkness so the Rays of light are knowledge wisdom and understanding the opposite of light is Darkness and both the light and the Darkness are viewed in scripture as Powers the former as the means for making us bear fruit and grow and the latter as the Authority or power from which the father rescues us so we ought to be releasing thanks of praise to the father because he has made us fit to share in The Inheritance through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ see it’s the heavenly father who did this by his mighty Act of rescue a glorious act to transfer us into a saving possession a possession that’s why we read Acts 26 where Paul’s mission in the world given by God was to do what to open their eyes so that they may turn from the darkness to light and from the Dominion of Satan to God and that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been Sanctified he’s just saying the same thing there as it’s saying here in different words it’s the same thing the same consistent message so if we look back at Acts or excuse me Colossians chapter one notice the second thing that God does it says the Father the father does verse number 13 the father has rescued us for something from something it says for he delivered us from the what domain of Darkness you know what I was studying this passage of scripture and something dawned on me would really get and I’ve been saying this in the past and I have to change I used to say uh the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of Satan it doesn’t say that it says domain of saint all right now that changes things the Greek here translated domain is actually a word that means Authority or Supernatural power or ruling power so if we or anyone is to be rescued out of the power domain of Darkness then it is required that a power greater than that power has to rescue that person now the power domain is the characteristic and ruling principle of any kind of region with unbelievers we dwell before conversion to Christ in a power domain where everyone holy is within its grip there is nothing you can do to rescue yourself or remove yourself from this power your subject you’re absolutely subject to it you’re helpless to gained any kind of Escape or release you can do nothing about it and that is every single person who’s ever born from the time of the garden where Adam and Eve fell from God and God shut them out from that point on they were walking in darkness and every single one of us is walking in darkness and we’re in we’re under we’re in a domain that is controlled by a fallen angel called Satan and there’s nothing you can do to rescue yourself from that domain you are in it you are in that domain and in that domain what happens there in your natural state you love Darkness rather than light that’s what it says in John chapter three men love Darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Hey listen I’m loving my sin here don’t shut any kind of light on it why do we why do why is sin done at night and in Dark Places and in secret why do we hide it it’s because we don’t want people to find out about it that’s why but when the light comes it starts shining on your life as a Believer what happens you start seeing all the darkness I didn’t know I was that Wicked I didn’t know I was that hateful I didn’t know you know what I never loved anybody in my life it was all about me see we began to see those things why because the light of the Gospel is shining in your heart also The Sinner resides in darkness in an unilluminated State look what does Luke say it says to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death see that’s where we are we’re sitting in darkness we don’t know it we think we’re in control we think we know everything that’s going on we’re smart we can get by we’re Americans we have a step up our lip and all that things that’s that’s a bunch of hogwash we were in this domain and we’re in it’s under its control also in that domain hatreds of hatred abounds towards God and people first John tells us but the one who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness amen and then sinners walk in darkness where no fellowship with God takes place it doesn’t matter how religious a person is it says here if you say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness we lie and we do not practice the truth and a lot of religious systems all that they do is they kind of like coddle the conscience so you think you’re doing as much as you can to be a good person and all that is is the kingdom of darkness just manipulating you so you stay within his confines Satan will give you anything you want he will give you any kind of he will allow you to have all the pleasure and joy and money and everything you need in this world he will do anything he will give you anything he will say anything he will lie to you so you stay in the kingdom of darkness that’s what he’s doing and of course I’ve already mentioned but I cannot mention this domain of Darkness without mentioning God’s greatest antagonist which is Satan and after his fall from God because of his pride he has hated God ever since Satan is in the world and the world is really the world is in the Embrace of the devil first John tells us we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one so the devil wants to keep the Lost in the dark and ignorant of the Gospel it says in second Corinthians it says whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God he wants also to delude and trip up the Saved and Rob them of their peace and joy and stifle their growth and ruin their testimony as children of light so that means that darkness is ungodliness it’s opposition to God it’s estrangement from God it includes all those Dreadful evils which are involved in the evil state of heart and mind it’s the power of sin it’s the tyranny of error it’s the slavery of corruption that these are everywhere everywhere you go you find them and it’s not new today they’ve always been here maybe because of our Global Network of information we just know about them sooner but the Evil’s always been there The Tyranny has always been there’s a slavery to corruption has always been there these are everywhere and are the characteristic of human nature and existence it always has been in other words the world’s mad the world is mad it’s it’s going mad it’s madder than ever and it’s not political it’s not social this is spiritual we’re talking about a spiritual battle with wickedness in high places so whatever’s going on in our world whether it’s political social or otherwise Satan is pulling the strings God’s allowing him to do that because his days are numbered his time is short judgment is coming he’s already been judged by the cross just a matter of time before it all comes to a crashing end but a Victorious end for those in Christ see Satan is a usurper he actually has no right at all he’s a rebel he has he’s one who has taken an authority unto himself that was not him his to take he was never given it he was never meant to rule humans he robbed it that’s what he did he robbed it and the devil has taken upon himself an authority that was never given to him he does not have a kingdom he is a power but it’s only a stolen power he has no right to have it but he does use that power to overcome believers to try to overcome Believers and to definitely keep those who are in his bondage in bondage so there’s no way at all possible that any human being no matter who they are how much strength they are how much knowledge they have can rescue themselves from that they are there and they’ll stay there it was uh Marlo Jones who said this being a Christian is not to have a nice comfortable feeling inside you but to enter the kingdom of God the kingdom of Christ to be a Christian means to be taken out of that horrible Darkness out of the life of sin and shame and evil to begin a life that is a new life that is a new start that you have a new heart it means now to you belong to him who who says I am the light of the world anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness see Christianity is to belong to God who is light and in in him is no Darkness it is the realm of light and of glory and of Holiness and a purity and of Peace Everlasting it is the inheritance of the saints that is what he gives us in other words what I am saying is that the one who rescues you from that domain of darkness is God the Father through Jesus Christ that ought to bring praise to our lips and worship to our heart that he has done that and nobody can undo that so we release thankful praise to the father because he has by his power rescued us out of this power domain of Darkness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ but he just didn’t do that there’s a third thing he did in verse number 13 of Colossians chapter one notice what he did the father now transfers us it says and transfers us what to the king Kingdom of the beloved Son Satan has a domain Jesus has the kingdom right and of course that Kingdom is the kingdom of uh his the Beloved son so the the very word transfer means to be removed to remove to be changed from one domain to a kingdom from the domain of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light it’s a change of King and Realm and this word is sometimes used to describe the deportation of a population from one country to another Jesus transfers us to a New Kingdom the kingdom of our beloved Son the world’s gone mad you know there was a I think he was a psychologist who uh is now passed away but his name was Dr Charles Berg he wrote a book uh many years ago and the title of his book now he wasn’t a Christian actually he was a vowed atheist but he was he was a scholar and he did write a book and instead of calling the book uh mankind he called the book mankind and the reason why is he was studying the origin and development of the Mind in human beings and why they act the way they do and he expressed the notion in his book his writings where he says that mankind are all a little mad people are all a little mad victims of a protact protracted and still uncured psychosis it cannot be otherwise as um described as supernaturalist taboo that colors the social life of people and their personal conduct to such a good a degree that human thought is found upon delusions now of course you would have to say well what was the solution once he got done with this research well his solution was this that parents should be trained in psychotherapy for and teach it to their young children before they further further corrupt their children to uh where they would have no Beyond The Cure they would be Beyond The Cure now here’s a man who studied Mankind and came up with the conclusion that mankind is mad but had no Solutions you know what he was right on except he had no Solutions brilliant man with no Solutions see Jesus the father rescues us from the man of darkness and he transfers us to the kingdom of his beloved Son and children of God have been lifted from the domain of the devil and our now children of his kingdom and in this Kingdom Christ is above all Christ is Lord and king of all and Jesus Christ is the preeminent one which we’re going to find out in the passages that follow this it’s like just like an airplane rises above the law of gravity because the power of the engines produce a stronger a stronger power than gravity itself so the power of God list lifts us above the pool of damnation and death and the power of the domain of Satan whereas the Saints are now free from the power of Darkness completely and now they alone walk in the light as God is in the light so we should release praise and thanks to the father because by his power he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that’s what he’s done and these are the things that ought to be on our mind all the time so we can constantly thank God every day and praise him and that should fill our joy but there’s one other thing in verse number 14.

of chapter one of Colossians that the father has bought us for himself notice what it says in whom we have Redemption and the Forgiveness of sins so what is a ransom a ransom is a price for liberating either a person or a thing that has been taken or possessed by another to set it free by the payment of a price well the word Redemption has the same idea you redeem something by paying a price to get it back and it has come back to you when you do that to release a prisoner buy a payment it says in Matthew he says he gives his life a ransom for many in Timothy it tells us who gave himself a ransom for all that’s what Christ has done so the teaching here is that Christ by his death and Resurrection loses our bonds and sets us free who are prisoners and he does it by paying a price and that price was the price of his precious blood where he died on the cross and shed his blood the Bible says the Precious Blood of the Lamb unblemished unspotless or spotless the blood of Christ so Jesus met the holy demands of God’s law on that cross and the ransom has been paid on Calgary Calvary by his death and through faith in Jesus you have been set free the end of Colossians verse chapter 1 verse 14 shows us that Redemption and forgiven forgiveness go hand in hand hand it says the Forgiveness of sins because without the shedding of blood there is no washing away of sins for the the word translated forgiveness means to send away it means to cancel the debt that there’s no debt that we have to pay Christ paid that debt fully for us so the heavenly father through Christ not only set us free and transferred us to this new kingdom but he canceled every sin dead every sin that every sin that so that we cannot be enslaved to them again we can no longer be condemned by anything that we’ve ever done if you are truly in Christ today nothing can condemn you Satan cannot condemn you you are now in the light Satan can’t make any indictment stick against you again remember he’s an accuser of the Brethren is he not no his accusations mean nothing because you are in Christ as it says in Colossians chapter one look at verse number 20. it says and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven we are at peace with God can you think of that for a minute being at peace with God everything’s done I can sit down and relax the light is given to me the kingdom is mine but I have to get through this life I have to live in a way that pleases God that’s what I have to do that’s what you have to do so we are we should be releasing thankfulness thankful praise to the father because he has the power by his power by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ bought us from the slave market of sin and washed us cleaned by the blood of Christ no condemnation to those who are in Christ that means that Jesus Christ is the preeminent one in the salvation of sinners no other person could redeem us forgive us and transfer us out of the kingdom of of the domain of Darkness into God’s Kingdom and make us fit for the Christian Life and for our inheritance no one else could do that there is no other way so what is our part our part is to give thanks to the father is that too hard to do but you can’t do that without knowledge behind that what am I thanking God for my new card that I got for this new project that I finished you know for for my health I mean all all those things we should be thankful for but specifically I’m thanking God for so great a Salvation that he accomplished for me so what so I can have peace of heart so can I I can have genuine Joy so I can live my life knowing where I’m going and not only that have the light of the Gospel shine on everything I’m doing to know whether I please God or not and not wonder whether I do I actually know I do that is a far different place than we ever were before conversion so our part is to give thanks because he has done everything salvation is all together entirely of him what he has done to enable us to enjoy this great salvation he qualified US made us fit he rescued us he transferred us he bought us this is the Glorious character of so great of Salvation so are you giving thanks to the father for those reasons to understand them and you are thanking the heavenly father for them you are a Christian and I’m not talking about just once in a while this is an everyday thing you walk outside the door say thank you Lord thank you for what you’ve done thank you for your greatness and kindness towards me I don’t deserve any of it but I thank you all day living that way of course scripture tells us that you ought to hold fast to those things because that’s where Satan wants to take him away from you and you can’t but he wants to try so if you never think about those things maybe could care less about those things maybe you think there’s more important matters in life well today you need to check yourself to see if you indeed are in the faith unless you believed in vain Colossians chapter one look at verse number 23 notice what it says it says if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul was made a minister in other words he’s writing against the false teachers now because their false teaching wants to remove them from what they heard in the gospel you have to know you have to do these things if you want to be right with God and God is saying no it’s all done for you it’s all done now you have to go live for Christ you’re giving everything to live for Christ so let’s think on these things every day so that would it would fuel our knowledge it will fuel our understanding it will fuel our thankfulness it will fuel our joy so are are you in the light are you in darkness that’s that has to be the question and don’t fool yourself don’t deceive yourself to think well I I prayed a prayer 10 years ago or and and I’m I’m covered no today right now do you know if you die today you would go to be with the Lord because of what Christ did on your behalf and you lived that every day that’s a Christian so are you in the light are you in darkness that’s a simple question the answer has to be yes or no and if the answer is no if you say if the answer is no then you have to ask Jesus for the Salvation only he can give you have to come run to him where you’re not guaranteed tomorrow turn and repent of your sin and have faith in Jesus Christ and he will rescue you he will transfer you he will forgive you he will wipe out your debt and he will bring you to be with him in glory that’s something to give praise about that’s where we ought to think as Believers and if you live there you’re a little big problems you think become awful small because God’s going to give you the wherewithal to deal with them in the spirit of a steadfast patient Joy he’s going to do that see these are the things that you you and I ought to be practicing and believe me I know by experience when you practice them you actually have a peace and a joy that you really don’t have any reason in this world that should be giving you that except God right that’s where you want to live but if you don’t know that today is the day’s salvation please talk to someone today come talk with me let me share the gospel with you let someone in our church share the gospel with you so you can come to know Christ’s Savior and you can be rescued from the domain of darkness in which you live right now let’s pray Lord thank you this morning thank you Lord for the clarity of the word of God thank you Lord that the word of God does not pull punches it hits us squarely in the gut and it reaches down to the thoughts and intents of the heart and exposes us for who we really are Thank You Lord For That and I pray Lord because of it because of these things because of what we learn from the word of God we could be Christians who are praising you constantly who are thanking you for so great a Salvation and Lord that would make US citizens that are very productive in this world citizens who are concerned about lost souls concerned about the growth spiritual growth of others concerned about the glory of God in this world so I pray Lord no matter how dark the world gets the brightness and the sh the illumination of the Gospel is brighter still so Lord make us children of light and allow us to live that way every single day of our life and as we do that we would give you all the praise and the glory and the honor for all that you have done and will do in our life and I prayed this in Christ’s name amen

In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 1:9-11 and the three prerequisites for growth that will cause you to experience ongoing spiritual growth and maturity. Those three prerequisites are: knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Full Transcript:

This morning let’s take our Bibles and turn to Colossians 1:9-11. Let me pray.

Father, thank You this morning for bringing us here together. We thank You so much that the Lord Jesus Christ died in our place, took the wrath of God for us, and made us right with You. Thank You that He shed His blood to wash away our sins and to give us His Spirit. As we live and walk through this world, we have the Word of God and the Spirit of God living in us. I pray, Lord, that as that happens, make us people that are victorious in our life. Make us the people that are more than conquerors.

Lord, especially in the hard times in life, may we display the very things that the Spirit of God is working in us, in our very words and attitudes. Lord, even in, and especially in, the joy You give us because of this new life in Christ. Enable us to do that. Give us what we need. I pray in Christ’s name, amen.

I want you to picture in your mind this morning that will help illustrate how a disciple of Jesus Christ grows as a believer. I want you to imagine that in front of you is a pile of bricks. They represent biblical knowledge, which includes a bunch of true facts, information, principles, and observations.

Next, I want you to imagine that you take the mortar and the sand and begin to make something out of them. Or imagine a truck pulls up to your home and drops off mortar, sand, and water. They represent wisdom that provides the means for you to take all their information and facts and think how to make something useful out of them.

Now, imagine that you take the mortar and the sand and the cement. You take all of the individual bricks, and you begin to build a structure. The process represents understanding. Understanding takes the bricks and the sand and the mortar and the water and constructs a useful structure.

Keep in mind and imagine that as we proceed into scripture this morning. Paul is praying a prayer for the spiritual growth of the people that he is writing to. This, of course, also applies to us. We need the same things, and this prayer is for us today too.

If you look at Colossians 1:28, Paul is writing to the Colossians. He is writing to believers in verse 28, and he says,

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

You were in the world, and you were of the world, but now you are in Christ. You are in a different sphere than you were before if you truly are a believer. Why does he admonish them in this way? There were heresies threatening this mostly-gentile church. Apparently, a religious system began to develop that combined elements of Greek philosophical speculation, Jewish legalism, and oriental mysticism all kind of in one bundle in a syncretistic type of mindset where they pull from here and here to make a religious system. That’s what most religions do.

What’s the matter with this religious system? Or for that fact, most religious systems. Matter is what the matter is here. False teachers had a dualistic cosmology. Everything Spirit they thought was good, and all matter is evil. They thought God Himself was perfectly good, spiritual, and totally disassociated from the material world because the material world was evil. In fact, they thought that God had not created the material universe. He would not pollute Himself by such contact.

You can see that these false teachers, as we look at scripture, had a docetic view of Christ. That word, doketo, in the Greek, means to seem or to appear. In other words, it mattered if matter is evil in their mind. They thought, how could Jesus have a real physical body? And if matter is evil, how could Christ or Christians have a bodily resurrection?

Docetism was a term for a more developed gnostic sect which appeared in the early church of Christianity. The error lay in their denial of the reality of Christ’s human body. They believed that Christ’s body was not really flesh and blood but only a hallucination or a phantom. That Christ’s body was purely spiritual and nothing of the human nature.

When we read scripture, we find out that the Bible actually stresses the opposite. In 1 John 4:2, it tells us,

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God

Then John goes on to say in 2 John 1:7,

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

False teachers had the idea that for God to become a man was unthinkable. Yet, this is what’s going on in the Colossian church. They were in danger of clamping on to false teaching that would really upset their faith. The false teachers had two misunderstandings that led to a third misunderstanding and a wrong conclusion.

False teachers say the Colossians should practice this way of living life as laid out by these people who had special knowledge. That lifestyle was basically what all religious systems do. It was an ascetic lifestyle. The way of life is stressed by rigid regulations and abstinence of certain things, and self-punishment.

Then, of course, that was also followed by an antinomian lifestyle, or without law. They had liberty in their flesh because the flesh was evil and the spirit was good, to indulge in fleshly practices. That’s why you find in Colossians 2:23, that Paul writes, and he says,

These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

You can’t put up a bunch of rules and regulations and think it’s going to regulate sin. It’s not. The only thing that’s going to regulate and help you to put sin to death is the Holy Spirit of God living in you. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to give us the knowledge to be able to do that.

It ended up with them worshipping angels. Why? Because angels were undefiled beings. They were spiritual and therefore were to be worshipped.

This is the way fullness is found by these false teachers. The old idea of spirituality is right out of Satan’s toolbox of tricks with the goal to drastically distort true biblical doctrine and the true Christian way of living lives. Specifically, it was designed to rob Jesus of His central place, which had a severe threat to the teaching of the redemptive work of Christ, the person of Christ, and the practical everyday living on how a Christian should live his life. It threatened all of it.

The Apostle Paul goes right to the source of truth, God Himself, and he asks God for the Colossians. He prays for them, that they would be able to put together the facts and information they receive from scripture and run them again through all of the scripture that they knew at that time so that they could apply the knowledge of God’s will to everyday situations with a spiritual boldness that can stand against any kind of false or aberrant teaching.

The Christian’s hope is that God’s way is the best way. It is the only way of real peace. The only way of real joy, and the only lasting rewards are to be found in Christ. So now you are in Christ, and you have a new life because you are in Christ. Joy comes when growth in Christ takes place on a continual basis.

Paul prays with great aspirations for the Colossians and for all Colossians who will read this Epistle that Christian’s would mature in Christ. Encouragement was also contained in the intention of Paul’s prayer for the Colossians to proceed as they began. You started in Christ, continue in Christ, and don’t get set off track by false teaching.

The proposition would be for us that the instruction included in this prayer is profiting for us to understand. In these, the two points that I will mention so that spiritual growth can be understood. And when implemented in your Christian life, you should stand, understand, and experience an ongoing process of growth and maturity.

If I were to ask you a few questions this morning; would you like to live in every way that pleases that Lord in all things? What would you say? Yes, you would. Right? Would you like to have staying power, patience, joy, and thanksgiving every day? What would you? Of course, I do. Right?

What we’re talking about here is something supernatural. Not everybody can have it. Only saints can have it, those who are in Christ. Because you have answered those questions in the affirmative, then let’s look at the scripture this morning. The first thing mentioned under the title are the prerequisites for growth. There are always perquisites. When you go to college, you find out that you can’t take the course you want to take until the third year. You have to take all these other courses before you get there. There are prerequisites for things.

Paul in Colossians 1:9 is asking the Lord the Father for these Colossians, for all of the believers who read this, for something to be given. The verb indicates that Paul is asking for himself on behalf of the saints. His request is for enlightenment, which includes three prerequisites for growth. The first one would be that of verse 9, that you may be filled with knowledge. Notice what it says,

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will

Here is the first thing, the word knowledge is really an advance on the term ‘to know,’ and it denotes larger and more thorough knowledge, especially an intense religious or moral knowledge and what comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is knowledge not just of anything but of God’s will.

Where could you get that except from the word of God? You don’t just happen to stumble on God’s will. You have to know what the will of God is. Here he is praying that they will have this knowledge which grasps and penetrates into the object of this knowledge, which is God Himself. The source of it is a full knowledge of God revealed from the scripture. It is not knowledge coming from human ingenuity, human tradition, or even human education and experience.

It is not that the knowledge here is not knowledge of all the other worlds or knowledge that is mystical that you can never really define, but this is knowledge of the will of God. What does God want from me? It’s clear that knowledge, heart-transforming and life-renewing knowledge, will result in a deep fellowship with God.

If you notice, it is God who works this deep, full, rich knowledge in us. Look at Colossians 1:25, it says,

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, ²⁶ that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, ²⁷ to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

What is the mystery of God’s will that has been hidden, but now revealed to His saints? Of course, it is salvation in Christ. That is part of it. But it is also a fuller understanding or, as Ephesians puts it, a more direct understanding of what God has actually done. If you go back to Ephesians that we read this morning. You go back past Philippians to Ephesians. If you notice in Ephesians 1:5, it tells us what we know and what knowledge we have of God’s will. That is that God predestined us as sons. In Ephesians 1:5, he says,

⁵ He predestines us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intentions of His will

There’s the will of God. And then Ephesians 1:9. God setting His grace upon us. It says in Ephesians 1:9,

⁹ He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him

And then Ephesians 1:11. God gives His saints guaranteed inheritance, where it says,

¹¹ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will

We see here that the very package of salvation has always been the will of God. Before the world was created, it was God’s will for this to work out in history, and you’re part of that if you are a believer this morning, if you know Him as Lord and Savior.

We’re to be filled with this knowledge and further knowledge that we grow in Christ. But you can’t end with knowledge. Some people end with knowledge and get a puffed head and they think they know everything. They tell everybody that they’re wrong and right. That’s pride, right? You can’t just have knowledge. Even knowledge of God. You have to have the next thing that comes.

Look back at Colossians 1:9, it says,

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

He uses the word wisdom now. This wisdom is really the ability to use knowledge for correct behavior and insight to life. Also, he uses the supreme intelligence of knowledge of God and Christ, where we see in Colossians 2:3,

³ in whom are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

It’s all hidden in Christ. Here wisdom refers to mental excellency, and it is the highest and fullest knowledge anyone can have on this side of eternity. It embraces the faculty of intelligence, which discriminates between the false and the true. It is in opposition to fleshly, earthly, and demonic wisdom.

You know there are two kinds of wisdom? There is wisdom that comes from the earth, and there is wisdom that comes from above. It is James who really told us very clearly about this wisdom, where it says in the epistle of James, without turning there, I will read it to you,

¹³ Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in gentleness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

The world doesn’t realize that you and I, before we became believers, this was the knowledge we had. We had earthly knowledge. We had natural knowledge. We had knowledge, we didn’t know this, that came from demons themselves. Demons are still dispelling knowledge. Then James goes on to say this,

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

That is the wisdom that God is going to give us in the Word of God. That wisdom is going to bear certain unique characteristics within your daily life. In the very practical, everyday, day-in and day-out, matters of life. Because that’s where we live, we live in a world, and life is hard. Life will always be hard. The Bible never says that it’s going to be easy. In fact, the Bible stresses that life will be hard.

So how do we live in this life that is hard? After someone comes to Christ, the source of their wisdom is heavenly. Scripture calls it, back in Colossians 1, spiritual wisdom. Practically, wisdom is the ability to use the best means in order to reach the highest goal, which is a life lived to the glory of God. That is the highest goal. That is our goal. It is a reachable goal, but not on your own. No one could reach that on their own.

While considering this, the next prerequisite, keep in mind that knowledge needs wisdom, and then wisdom needs understanding. It’s not just having the facts, and then the wisdom to be able to do it, but now understanding is something quite different. Wisdom is the mortar and sand, and water which hold the individual bricks together that give potential to the structure. But without wisdom, you will not know how to take all of the information and facts to make something useful out of them.

If you look at Colossians 1:9, he says there is something else that is given to us and that he prays for. That you may be filled with understanding. The last part of verse 9. Not only are you to be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all spiritual wisdom, but with understanding. Now we have knowledge of God’s will, we have wisdom that comes from heaven, and now we have understanding to be able to put it all together. You cannot be without any of these as a Christian.

It is not a mistake about the progression of words preceding from the knowledge of God. That understanding means insight or practical comprehension of needs and problems, and principles, especially that of everyday life. The words refer to putting together facts and information, drawing conclusions, and seeing relationships.

Consequently, that means that knowledge, wisdom, and understanding should be translated very practically in life situations. Such as, he is going to say in this epistle, if you notice over in Colossians 3:18-19, he says, husbands love your wives, and wives how to submit to their husbands. In verse 18 it says,

¹⁸ Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. ²⁰ Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.

Isn’t that very practical? You say, well, everybody knows that. No, not everybody knows that. And if you know it, you don’t know how to put it into practice because you don’t have the power to put it into practice. Christians have the practice to put it into practice.

If you remember that if you have a pile of bricks that contain all kinds of facts and information, to build something out of those bricks, you need wisdom, and to practically use what you made, you need understanding.

A husband can know in his mind that he needs to love his wife, but if he never puts it into practice, then it’s pretty useless. And a father can know that he should not exasperate his children, but if he continues to do it then the knowledge is of no use to anyone. In other words, he’s comparing these practical ways to live to the false teachers. To the false teachers, it’s all about mysticism, and you can’t really define anything. You can’t really nail anything down.

I can nail this down. Love your wife well, let me put that into practice. Husbands put that into practice. Children obey your parents; put that into practice. I can do that if I am a believer.

Paul’s desire included that the saints be saturated. He keeps using this world, filled and saturated like a sponge. You can put a little water into a sponge, or you can fill that sponge where it’s ringing. He wants us to be saturated with the knowledge and the wisdom and the understanding of God until it controls us to the point of control.

But it doesn’t say here that it automatically happens. In fact, the action of filling depends on someone else. It depends on God Himself, but it depends on us putting those things into place as we learn them.

In this case, you can translate it as may God fill you. The action of filling is possible as Paul prays and depends on the object, which is God. And what’s the goal? That we would all become complete in Christ. Therefore, when Paul prays that the Colossians and all believers may be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, the end result is, where should it lead? You should be looking for these things to become complete in Christ. To be able to walk worthy and to please the Lord in everything.

This spiritual knowledge is practical and gives us direction about living for God and doing His will. It is not empty, useless knowledge like the false teachers valued or the contemporary teachers were teaching. These are really all included in the prayer request of Paul, which was for the believer to be filled with this knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Why? In order to live in a life that is hard in a certain way. And to be able to know you’re doing it.

What are we anyway? Aren’t we sojourners passing through? None of us are home. If you didn’t realize that as a believer, you should realize it. None of us are home. We are sojourners. We are pilgrims in a foreign land. We are citizens of heaven. We are heading to heaven.

While we’re heading there, how are we supposed to live? He wants us to live victorious. He wants us to live as more than conquerors. That is not a natural thing.

We look back in Colossians, and we see the purpose for these growth qualities. If you notice in Colossians 1:10, it says,

¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

Once a believer starts putting the spiritual knowledge into practice and continues to do that, spiritual growth actually begins, and it continues for the rest of your Christian life. You will be growing in this knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. The quest is for expanded productivity that would become a reality in every one of our lives. We go from a babe to a young man who starts learning the Word of God and fighting Satan with it to a spiritual father who learns to walk and live by faith. That’s the goal that we want in our life.

The goal of the knowledge of God’s will is two-fold in our scripture this morning. The first one, if you notice in verse 10, is to bring one’s life into balance. It says, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I’ll mention that word in a minute, but before you and I came to know Jesus as Savior and Lord, our lives were out of balance. Yes, even out of control. Would you agree?

The metaphor of walking here, that you may walk, points to a certain way to act. It’s used in other places of scripture. Like in Deuteronomy, it says, to love the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him. Proverbs gives us this knowledge, where it says, I have directed you in the way of wisdom and have led you in upright paths. When you walk, you won’t stumble, or your steps won’t be impeded.

In other words, there is a way to live according to the world, and we’re all used to that because we came out of it, and there is a way to live according to the flesh, but there is a way to live according to God’s way. That’s where we’re heading. The will of God is God’s way.

Out of our lives, we once were controlled and directed by the sinful, evil heart. Now again, the sister book of Colossians is Ephesians, and what did Paul say in that very well-known passage of scripture in Ephesians 2? Where he says,

¹ And you were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world

The world was telling you how to walk. Still telling you. Facebook, Twitter, and all of the media sites. They’re telling you how to dress. They’re telling you how to think. They’re telling you what to buy. They’re telling you everything. Sometimes you don’t even realize it. That’s what they’re doing. That’s the course of the world. Also, it says,

according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived

All of us lived this way, in the lust of our flesh.

indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Everybody’s in the same category. We didn’t really know that until we came to scripture. And when we come to scripture, we realize now, with this wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, that God wants us to walk in a certain way. And He wants you to notice that you’re walking in that way. He wants other people to notice that you’re walking in this particular way.

To walk simply means to order one’s steps or behaviors so that it is done in a worthy manner. Now this word ‘worthy’ expresses the intended results of having been filled with the true and clear knowledge of God’s will to walk worthy. To walk worthy literally means to have the weight of another thing or another person. And the meaning includes bringing up the other beam of the scales or to bring it into equilibrium.

Think of a scale. If you have a scale and you put too much weight on one side, then it’s lopsided, right? It means to bring your scale into balance, where you have the same weight on each side. Of course, it’s saying to put yourself up against the character of Christ and make sure your life lines up with His.

As we are filled with the Spirit of God, that is a reality. When a believer acts accordingly, it shows he or she is walking in a particular sphere they never walked before. They are no longer in the world.

They are in the world, but they are not of the world, and they’re in Christ. They’re walking in this world in Christ. In a different sphere, they’re walking. They’re walking as conquerors. As victorious. As those who are overcomers. See, that’s the way you want to live because in this hard world we live in, that’s the only way to live as a Christian.

If you look at Colossians for a moment. Look at Colossians 2:6. He uses this metaphor. Again, he says in Colossians 2:6,

⁶ Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him

Now that just assumes right there, right away, that you should know how to walk. Walk in Him. Well, you got to know how to do that, right? You have to know how to walk in Him. Again, look at Colossians 3:7. It says,

⁷ and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

Now, what sins did we walk and live in? Go up to Colossians 3:5, and he tells us. It says,

⁵ Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

In verse 6,

⁶ For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

God is going to hold everybody responsible for every sin they ever committed, every act they ever lived out, every word they ever spoke, every thought that was in their mind that was against the will of God. All will be judged who are outside of Christ. Those who are Christians will be judged by how they lived after they became a believer.

Then, in Colossians 4:5, he says this,

⁵ Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

This assumes very clearly that a Christian knows how to live. They know how to walk to those who are not in Christ yet before the world. They know how to do that. The believer shows evidence that they are no longer walking according to the characteristics of the kingdom of darkness but the kingdom of God’s dear Son. That’s exactly what it says in Colossians 1:13.

¹³ For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son

The point being when the believer grows in knowledge, spiritual wisdom, and understanding, the result of their daily walk will have the attributes of the Lord’s character in them. The saints are to watch their manner of life and conduct that in a way that weighs as much as the character of their Lord.

The Spirit of God indwelling us enables us to live this kind of lifestyle. Your lifestyle will be an equal weight on both sides of the scale. Equal weight brings equilibrium in your life, therefore, having control. Self-control. The Spirit of God gives us control by this knowledge that comes from God.

Just by way of a simple example, I was reading a story about a couple from the Quechua tribe in Bolivia. A man named Paulino and his wife, Aurora, had marital problems. They started over an old blanket. Her mother-in-law had given a blanket to her daughter. Aurora thought that she should have it. Well, the husband did something very dangerous. He took the side of his mother. Aurora got mad and left with her one-year-old baby and her three-year-old child and walked six hours to her mother’s house.

Along the way, she began to be convicted by the Holy Spirit. But Satan was also working on her because by the time she arrived at her mom’s house, she wanted a divorce. That small matter like that? Yes, a small matter like that.

A few Christians began to counsel her from God’s Word. They prayed for the Lord’s guidance and His will to be done in this matter. As a result of godly counsel from the Word of God, Paulino, and Aurora made amends. They got back together and ended up doing well. They chose to obey God’s will and became more mature because of their decision.

I say that little story for this reason. That’s very practical stuff. That’s what God is asking us to do. He is asking us to do very practical things in our life. If we can’t do the simple, practical things, then you and I haven’t learned a thing about how to treat people and circumstances.

This is an example of walking worthy. Using spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and understanding resulted in what? Pleasing the Lord, putting off sin, and bringing life into balance. That’s what ought to happen.

Look at Colossians 3:13. Simple again. It says,

¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

How do you balance the scales? If God forgave you, and that’s the knowledge that comes from God’s Word, I should have no problem forgiving anyone else. No matter what the offense against me because, look at all of the offenses that we had against God. And He forgave us. Isn’t that practical and simple wisdom?

Try to counsel someone to put some of that into practice sometimes when they are dug in against something. It doesn’t matter. You can move heaven and earth, and they’re not going to budge from not forgiving that person. Because of what they did. Right? But this says, well, your life is out of balance still. Your life is not balanced with the character of the Lord.

If it was, then you know what you would do? You would be forgiving. And you would know in your mind that it’s because you please God when you’re forgiving. And you act like Jesus when you’re forgiving.

This is the result. The result of a walk like this is to please God in all ways, both inward thoughts and outward actions. That means the believer begins to act like the Lord and balance the scales that they never could balance before. Believers in Christ bear fruit, unlike the disciples of the false teachers. All they have is rules and regulations. That’s it.

This leads me to the second thing is to please the Lord in all kinds of ways. This is in Colossians 1:10, which says to please Him in all respects. If you ask yourself the question, do you please Jesus in all respects? Now you want to, but you’re probably not there yet. I don’t know if anybody is there yet, but that is my point on how to live life. I want to do this. I want to be pleasing to the Lord in all respects.

There are four areas for ways to please the Lord that He gives us in scripture. In Colossians 1:10, he says this, that the believer grows, bearing all kinds of fruit, such as this, the fruit of good works. Verse 10, Bearing fruit in every good work.

What does it say in Ephesians? That we are created in Christ for good works. Remember again that good works, if Christ saved you from sin, then and only then do you have good works that please the Lord. Everything else, you may have been good in the eyes of the world, was not good works that pleased the Lord. Of course, good works can be as simple as giving a cup of water to someone who needs it. Right? Because you’re considering, I am doing this because I am a believer, and I know the Lord.

Then, in verse 11, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. This is another way we please the Lord. Steadfastness and patience really does assume something. That life is hard. If I have to be steadfast in something and patient in something, then that means I have to endure something hard.

Keep that in mind, but there is also another thing in verse 12. The fruit of joyful thankfulness. The end of verse 12, where he says, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us. But if you notice the last word in verse 11, it says, joyously. That means I bear with people and circumstances under pressure with this inner attitude of joy. You may be able to deal with things for long term, but you probably haven’t done it with a continuous attitude of joy and thanksgiving to God.

This is supernatural. This only comes to us by the Lord. That’s what we want. It must really be clear to us at this point that conversion to Christ brings with it a new capacity with which we know how to serve God in righteousness. The life of God now within the believer begets a new nature, and for believers, it is paramount that you grasp what God has done for you and in you. It really should begin to resonate with us that it’s a principle that is already true in you. This is given to us by the Spirit of God, but we have to grow in that principle.

Also, pleasing the Lord shows up in verse 10 in increasing in the knowledge of God. Notice what it says,

bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

Ultimately, most of the troubles in the church, according to the teaching of the Epistles, stem somewhere or another from a lack of knowledge and understanding of God and His will. That’s where most of the Epistles are written from, in order to correct some wrong thinking, some wrong behavior in the church. Why? Because culture has dictated how people live. Your own fleshly nature has dictated what you desire and how you live. Satan is behind all of that, dictating how you should live, pulling all of the strings. Of course, he doesn’t want you to know he’s doing that, but he is.

Somewhere or another, this lack of knowledge and understanding of God is out of whack. It’s out of balance. Remember, theology is the study of God. A person studying a Person, not just abstract truths about the Person. It’s not really knowing a number of things about God, like He is great, mighty, or majestic, because the demons have knowledge of that greatness, might, and majesty of God, and where does it lead them? It leads them to trembling, and it should lead people to trembling if they know that.

One can have a deep interest in theology without much knowledge of God. They can read many Christian books on theology, apologetics, and a variety of subjects and yet have very little knowledge of who God is and what His will is. They can even sometimes lead a Bible study group, write a Christian blog, and have certain knowledge about God without much personal, intimate knowledge of him.

The true knowledge in the Word of God is to grow in a personal, intimate knowledge, where God is real to us, and we are very conscious every day of His presence in our life. We live before His eyes. When we live there, believe me, we don’t live there in fear. We live there with steadfastness coupled with joy and thanksgiving. I am enjoying life because I have everything I ever wanted. I am enjoying life because of what Christ has done for me. And right now, He has given me another day to live, and I am just going to be thankful for it.

Practical is the knowledge of God’s will. Practical stuff.

As a Christian takes in the truth, both understanding and his heart expand toward God, and his moral power is multiplied to live a righteous life. Bearing fruit and growing is accomplished by this knowledge of God. The Christian grows by the knowledge, and only a steady diet of the spiritual food from the Word of God will continue the growth.

Think that the Lord is to be a Person who can be thanked. What He asks us to do, He also enables us to do. God never asks us to do anything that is impossible. He always asks us to do what He is going to empower us to do. That’s why we can know how to walk. We can be empowered to actually walk the way the Bible says we should walk. That’s what pleases Him.

I want you to notice that in pleasing the Lord, it shows up in the strength given by God in Colossians 1:11. It says,

¹¹ strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.

This is not strength that is self-generated by the power of the force of someone’s will or their determination. This is strength imparted by the Holy Spirit. God’s power for strength is provided to move a believer into a certain quality of a kind of life. That person is a believer– well how do you know that? Not only by the way they talk but by the way they live. That’s what should be observational for all of us.

Paul’s request for an enablement of power is so the saint can shine forth the attributes of Christ. And what attributes does the person shine forth? If you look in verse 11, notice what it says,

¹¹ strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience

Let me stop there. Where is the Spirit of God taking us? To learn how to be steadfast. Here’s the communicable attribute of God. And Christian’s are a mirror of this characteristic.

The word steadfastness means to remain under. This word right here always applies to things and not persons. This word. Things like what? Persecutions, hinderances, temptations, conflicts. It is the ability to remain under the pressure of circumstances without losing character and without going out of balance. To remain quiet, unmurmuring, not grumbling under your breath, submissive, and enduring.

Why? Because you know God providentially knows the circumstances that you’re in. And obviously, He allowed you to be there. How am I going to respond to it while I am there? That’s how I know how to act. It’s not when things are going well, and when you have everything you want. No way, you can’t be measured by that. You got to be measured by when things get tough and life throws curveballs at you.

How are you going to respond? You may fail initially, but I think, as a believer, you will discover that you have failed and that you don’t want to fail. So, you come and say, “Lord, this situation that you called me to, I am in it now, but I didn’t do so well. I want to get back to having the knowledge of Your will, wisdom, and understanding next time, or even now in, the remaining trial that I am going through. Do it in a way that I please You.”

Then, notice in Colossians 1:11, what is the next thing you attain to? Patience. The saint is also given power to hold out long against provocations and people who provoke. This one is used of people. Patience always refers to persons. People who are hard to get along with. People are stubborn, hard-headed, and abusive.

Steadfastness and patience are two of greatest characteristics which are mirrored by the Christian as they grow in Christ. If you want to know how well you are doing, when a trial comes and hard times come, how do you respond to it?

Do you go to that medicine cabinet, take out the nearest bottle of whatever painkillers you have, and dump a few down so that you can go to sleep? Do you rush to that bottle of whiskey or that bottle that’s going to soothe some of those things in your heart? Do you run to some activity that fills your void when things go wrong? Where do you run to when the trials come?

You have everything you need, and I need, to be able to respond to all trials this way.

But again, the saint is also given power to hold out long against these provocations and decisive actions regarding people. How? Notice in the end of verse 11. Joyously. This is the thing that gets me to weep with joy.

It’s not when things are going well, but when things are hard in circumstances and difficult with people, do I still have this joy inside of my heart? I should be falling apart right now, but I am not. Why? Were you ever in that position? And you say, you know what, that’s the joy that no one can take away.

As a matter of fact, it’s a joy that only Christians experience that God gives you. It’s miraculous, and it’s divine. He allows you in those circumstances to be calm and to actually be joyful and thankful.

I want you to notice one last thing here in verse 11. This pleasing the Lord really does show up in our joyfulness—our heartfelt joy and thankfulness to the Father. It says in that last part of verse 11, to respond to all of this joyously.

Remember, when Jesus looked at the cross, what did He consider it? Joy. He considered it joy. Why? Because He was looking past the cross. The only way we’re going to maintain our joy is if we know we’re pilgrims in a foreign land heading to heaven. What do we have in heaven? We have an inheritance. We are no longer in the kingdom of darkness. We are in the kingdom of light. We’re heading into the presence of God, and there will be joy unspeakable and full of glory.

In both situations, believers are not to make a long face about things. All of their perseverance and long-suffering is to be accompanied by joy and not by some sickly smile behind, which really reveals a weak heart that longs for relief.

If a believer lives with this joy while under pressure with things and holding out long with people, it will definitely catch the attention of others, and at the same time, it will get the conclusion to our life that was out of control to please the Lord.

I can know how to please the Lord in all things. Here are the reasons why: I am growing, I have joy, I am growing in great patience and steadfastness, I am increasing in the knowledge of God, and God is pleased with all of those things. That’s something that you and I should want and desire.

Remember, you have a pile of bricks that contains all kinds of Bible-based facts and information about the knowledge of God’s will, but to build something out of those bricks, you need wisdom. To practically use what you made, you need understanding.

Wisdom is the mortar and sand, and water which holds the individual bricks together that gives potential and structure. Without wisdom, you would not know how to take all of the information and facts of God’s will to make something useful out of them.

Understanding takes the bricks, the sand, the mortar, and the water, so the structure becomes strong and useful. And in this case, we joyfully construct our lives with the knowledge of God while He enables us all the way along the road until we get to heaven. Until then, we mature more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That’s what God is doing with every single one of us.

If you know nothing of those things, then you have to say, am I a believer at all? Because only believers know these things.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word again. It’s pretty awesome, Lord. To be able to pick up the Word of God and see that this is what pleases the Lord. This is what we’re to grow to. This is how it looks. Thank You, Lord, that it is very practical. We know when we’re doing it. I pray, Lord, that we would be more conscious of it every single day of our life.

Lord, my prayer for us is the same prayer Paul had. That we as a congregation would grow in our knowledge, wisdom, and understanding so we would learn how to please You in all things and that we would grow in our knowledge, maintain our joy, and be steadfast in circumstances and patient with people. And in doing so, You would be pleased with all of it, Your name would be glorified, and in the interim, we would be maturing in Christ so that the scales of our life will not be out of balance but will be in perfect balance. Thank You, Lord, for these things. I pray in Your name, amen.

In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij continues discussing Paul’s teaching from Colossians 1:5-8 in how the gospel makes all things new for the Christian. In Part 2, Pastor Babij explains the pattern of God’s work in spiritually growing people:

1. The Gospel Must Be Heard (v. 5)
2. The Gospel Must Be Understood (v. 6)
3. The Gospel Must Be Learned (v. 7)

Full Transcript:

Let’s take our Bible’s this morning and turn to the Epistle of Colossians. Colossians 1:5-8 this morning. Let me read verse 1-8,

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

² To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

³ We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; ⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; ⁷ just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

Let’s pray. Father, this morning as we come to the word of God, we thank You that we’re able to come before You because of what Christ has done. As we come to the Word of God, we know that it is Your Word that is authoritative, it is everything we need for life and godliness. Lord, it is what You have given us on this side of eternity to learn what we need, about what You have done, what You’re doing, and what You’re going to do. Lord, not everybody knows that. Your believers, Your children know that and because they know it, they gain understanding that no one else has unless they have Christ. Lord, thank You for those things and bless us as we look in this portion of Scripture this morning. I pray in Christ’ name, amen.

Since you’ve been a Christian, if you have not realized this yet, one of the first things that happen when you become a believer is you start to love the Word of God. That is the first new thing that happens. Many new things happen in the Christian life—but that is one main new thing that happens. The true Gospel of Christ did not fit well with the well-known philosophies and the cultic practices that were going on in the time that this Epistle was written. The old idea of spirituality drastically distorted true biblical doctrine and the Christian way of life and all the sufficiency of Christ and His supremacy.

The Gospel will always remain in direct opposition to the words of false teachers. When the truth is practiced and when the truth is placed up against any error, the light of the Gospel exposes it for what it really is. What it is, is false and not true. It’s just the same old, repeated, repackaged, system of religion. That’s all it is. That’s why there are so many religions because men make it up.

Of course, those systems are inflated, and the teachers take things from all over the place and synchronize it. They include the commandments and teachings of men. They include philosophical thinking, which turns out to be bunch of mumbo-jumbo, because most of the stuff they say they can’t really understand. I don’t know if you’ve ever taken a philosophy course—they’re more confusing than anything you ever study in school. And yet, that is what is usually included in false teachings.

They are also packaged with empty deceptions, and laced with idle notions of dietary rules, harsh treatment of the bodies, do’s and don’ts. All those things go in there. There’s nothing new when it comes to a religious system.

Christ living in the new body, the Church, forms a new brand-spanking-new humanity, and it transforms us and all of our old ideas about life, God, the way of salvation into something quite different. In the simple words that I have mentioned that the Gospel makes all things new. That is something you know that has happened in your life because new things come.

So far, we have discovered that our relationship to God is new, our view of self is new, our relationship with people is also new. Our entrance into the family of God, the Church, is new. Our desire to know the Word of God is new. Our understanding of future hope in heaven is new. Our desires for spiritual growth and to know more is new. This is all because the Gospel was shared with us and came into our ears and heart and we repented of our sin, believed in Christ, and we have been following Jesus ever since that day. Since that day, new things have been coming into our life. New things have been happening.

That’s why Paul is laying all that stuff out, so that believers are secure in their faith. We notice that the gospel instructs us in our new position. What is our new position? That we are saints. That we are inwardly and outwardly set apart to God. That we’re faithful brethren in Christ. That we have a new source, our Father.

In verse 2, we have a new identity that is in Christ. Those who are now associated with Christ, who are in Christ, find themselves in a new position, in a new sphere, that the false teachers and his teaching, because that was one singular false teacher, made it impossible for people to really grow. There was no reason to grow. There was no life there. It also made it possible for people to be comfortable in their old religious systems. There was no ‘new things’ going on. It was just a bunch of the old stuff remade and repackaged. That’s all it is.

Once the believer understood their new position, they began to see the change. From last time, we saw that the Gospel induces a new progression in life. That progression is a spiritual movement. A new development in one’s life, since they came to believe in Jesus Christ. That progression is seen in people’s thankfulness, where it says in verse 3,

³ We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

This sense of gratitude has been given to us by the Spirit of God where saints are actually distinguished in their character by being thankful for all things. That includes being thankful for people from all different walks of life, different social strata and economic positions, cultures, and religions that they had in the world. Then they come together in one unified group which is called the Church, for one reason, and that is because of Jesus Christ.

The power of the Gospel is seen in how radical it is, how miraculous it is, how superior it is, and it exalts Christ, so we see who Christ really is. Once the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a new heart and eyes, we see people differently. We no longer see people through the lens of social economic, culture, or their religious standing in the world. When we met Jesus, now we see the lost with compassion as people who are helpless in darkness. They are dead in their trespasses and sin, and they need the glorious Gospel of Christ to shine in their hearts. Then, when we see genuine evidence of transforming life in a person that receives the Gospel, then there’s only one response that we have. That response is to give thanks. When we see signs of faith and love, where it says in verse 4,

⁴ Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints

We’re thankful that their faith is Christ-centered. That means Christ alone, and nothing is added to Him. We’re thankful of their love that is practical, and that there is evidence of their conversion not only in word but in deed. They’re thankful and we’re thankful that their hope is secure. There is a progression of hope in verse 5,

⁵ because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel

This hope is the basis for the faith and love that someone has. This is the third of the triads of virtues that the Spirit of God works in our lives. The cause of the Apostle giving thanks, and us giving thanks, is the hope that awaits the believer in heaven. The objective hope of eternal life, of God’s presence in heaven, is the fertile soil of which faith grows.

Hope that we are given is defined as a mighty certainty. It is a hope so strong that comes from the knowledge of God. A hope here is the realization that you have been called to be a saint, a faithful Christian, and because of the offer of the Gospel to respond to God in repentance and faith. God brings His children from an empty, false, deceptive dead hope to a strong, active, living hope. The hope rests on God’s power and His promise because Jesus was raised to life, and we will live because He lives.

From verse 5, God has stored away an inheritance for us in heaven because of the hope laid up for us there. It’s set before us, it is awaiting us, and it is kept for a later unveiling for our joy, but we already have that hope by faith. However, the reality of it we will have when we are with the Lord. It is a treasure that has perfect security. No enemy or thief can reach it. It is laid up where none of the changes of life can affect it at all. The Lord knows that if we were to handle it ourselves, we would probably mess it up and lose it. It’s safe in heaven out of the reach of all that could do it violence.

That brings up to another progression which I mentioned last week. That’s the progression of life that clings to a superior source of verse number 5. It says,

Of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.

Paul is phrasing these things to be a subtle attack against the false teaching. That’s what he is doing in Colossians. He is phrasing these things specifically. He says, you previously heart the word of truth—the gospel. So, the word of truth and the gospel are the same things. It’s not a word of a guess, or a probable inference. It’s not your own ideas or the world’s ideas. It is the infallible truth that has come to us. The word of God is truth, and it is plain. There are no hidden meanings that God is asking us to look for. It’s truth. It’s plain. There’s nothing hidden. There may be other things that are true in the world, but God’s word is the essence of all that is true. The superiority of the Gospel is seen in the whole subject and context that it is true.

Secondly, it says in verse 5, of which you previously heard that the superiority of the Gospel is seen and that it is for individuals. It says, of which you previously heard, and it has come to you. The pivotal moment that the Spirit of God illuminated our hearts to hear, to see, and to believe the truth of the Gospel. At that moment change started to happen.

Then, the superiority of the Gospel is seen in the universal outreach. In verse number 6 it says,

⁶ which has come to you, just as in all the world

The gospel is not just for a select little group of people, it’s for everyone. The gospel was not contained to one locale. Biblical Christianity spread rapidly throughout the known world at that time. As a matter of fact, statistic have been done on this, and they said that in the 1^st and 2^nd century they estimated that there were already over 500,000 converts in that part of the world, in which Paul and the Apostles were preaching. That’s a lot of people, and that increased massively in the next centuries, going into the millions.

It’s still happening today that people from all tribes, cultures, and nations are being presented the Gospel and they are coming to faith in Christ. We do know historically that all schisms and heresies are usually partial and local and that false teachers tend to be regional, but the Gospel goes to the whole world drawing all kinds of people. It’s intended for everybody, not just the educated, religious elite, or some special group with superior knowledge. The gospel is for everyone.

Notice in verse number 6, that the superiority of the Gospel is seen in its fertility. It says,

⁶ which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing

This gospel is bearing fruit in that it’s being spread, but also it is producing something in those who believed it. The introductory part of Colossians here, we see that God’s gospel takes root in people’s heart. It starts growing and producing fruit there. People set aside the old way of thinking and living to enter joyfully into a new way of thinking and living.

When the Word of God is received, real Christians bear fruit. All kinds of fruit. Holiness, godliness, Christian character, good works, giving, thinking about and praising God like they never have before, singing from their heart, sinning less, persevering in their Christian walk no matter what happens in their life.

This also includes growing in personal and congregational disciplines. Meaning some disciplines are practiced in isolation like our own personal prayer time and Bible reading and study, but others are practiced in community. Both of these things are given by God, and they need to work with each other not against each other. You can’t leave one or the other out and think you’re going to grow in the way you ought to grow. God works through each of these disciplines in a very unique way for His children to be able to experience Him and change us into Christlikeness. That’s why they’re there.

The disciple of Jesus is a person who is being continually conformed the image of the Master. He or she is a person who is constantly changing, growing, and knowing. They know that they have not yet arrived, but they’re continually striving for the goal set before us by the Master. The Gospel actually presents to us reality. If you want to know reality, you become a Christian, then you see things clearly the way they actually are. You also know where you’re going. There’s a new path that you have.

This next thing is not only that the Gospel instructs us as to who we are, but it induces a progression in our life, a forward movement. Thirdly, this morning, the Gospel irradiates a pathway for life. Notice in the middle of verse 6, it says

even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth

That means the day you actually heard the effectual call of the Gospel, it started doing something in you that same day. Now there’s always a pattern in which God uses to grow us. Part of that pattern is actually quite simple. The first part of the pattern is this, if you notice again in verse number 6, it says,

even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it

In other words, the Gospel must be heard. One must clearly hear the Gospel before one can embrace it in faith. Romans 10:14 tells us,

¹⁴ How then will they call on Him in who they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

It goes on to say in verse 17,

¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

I don’t think we often think about how much and how important it is for us to actually hear things. There’s a crisis that is getting worse and worse in our land. It is the crisis of hearing. Because we live in a multi-media entertainment saturated culture where television and other media sources have helped to create a society of watchers and not listeners. People who are fascinated by pictures and soundbites, not educated by words.

You know what’s amazing? That the Lord gave us the Bible in words. He didn’t give us a video, a DVD, a cassette tape. He gave us printed words. There is something about printed words that is powerful, that is embedded in your mind when you hear it correctly, and you take it to heart. Of course, this is not a new crisis with fallen humanity. Matter of history, the first step toward man’s fall was taken when Eve substituted what she saw. What did she see? The tree was pleasant to the site, it says in Genesis 2:9, for what she heard from God, you shall not eat from it, she reversed this to first seeing and then hearing. This plundered the whole human race into sin.

When the Son of God was on earth, His most important ministry was the proclamation of the word of God, not performing miracles. He was saying, he who has ears let him hear. To be sure, miracles were important as evidence of His Messiahship and proof of his great compassion for the needy but declaring the Word of God so people would hear it was His first priority. Unfortunately, the crowds want to see, they don’t want to hear. Even today people are looking for miracles and they’re not reading it to hear what the word of God says.

How well do you think you are ready to hear spiritual truth? In scripture, you will find that there is a spiritual connection between the heart and the ear. The parable of the sower that we read this morning gives great evidence of that. Ask yourselves, are you always prepared to listen when you come to church to a worship service? Is your Bible open, ready? Even having pen and pad ready or your iPad ready to make notes? Are you all-ears, always ready to add to what you already know, so that you can put all the spiritual truths into practice? Does this describe you? I hope that is at least your goal. I hope that is the direction of your life.

The first thing in the pattern that he lays out here in scripture is that the Gospel must be heard. Secondly, hearing is not enough. It’s not sufficient by itself. The Gospel must have hearing accompanied by Spirit-enabled listening. The Spirit of God is the necessary person and condition that we all need to understand the Word of God. The second pattern of this growth after hearing is the pattern of the Gospel being understood.

Notice what it says again in verse 6,

⁶ which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth

False teachers claim a corner on higher spiritual knowledge, but much of what they teach is really hard to understand, only the teachers really know what is being taught. Unless someone has some special higher knowledge, or in modern day vernacular, unless somebody is woke. That you really don’t understand, only a few understand, and a few see.

If you notice in Colossians 2:4, the Bible says,

⁴ I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.

A persuasive argument could be very convincing, especially if somebody is very skilled in communication, but when the truth is understood, the arguments will prove to be false. Actually, the term ‘understood’ here means spiritual knowledge received through revelation. It can be fully known that Paul’s use of the strong word is showing that false teachers really have nothing to offer true believers. Notice here what they are actually understanding. It says, they’re understanding the grace of God in truth. Where does that come from? John 1:14 says,

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Then in John 1:17,

¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Then we go to Galatians 1:6 and what does Paul rebuke the people of? He says,

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.

Jesus brought the reality of grace to us. That you cannot save yourself. No one can save you. Only Jesus can save you. In saving you, it’s free. It’s free.

The first point is that the Gospel is concerning the Son of God. This is the nerve and the heart and the very centrality of the Gospel, that Jesus Himself is the good news. Take away the person and there is no good news. There is no message at all. There is absolutely nothing if you take away Christ. Other false teachings and religions, if you can take away the main person, you still have the system. This is not so in Christianity; if you take away Christ there is nothing.

Christian people in this modern-media-age with so much loose thinking, even non-thinking people, are basically seeking entertainment. They don’t want to be challenged to think. Think for understanding. Actually, many people today dislike definitions of precision. We should think clear about this truth and should be ready to contend with it and even fight for it because if we forsake it then we have no Christianity at all without Jesus Christ.

Paul is really going to go on in the rest of this chapter later to give us a picture of Christ that is found nowhere else in scripture. He lifts Christ up to the highest place and gives Him the superior place that He ought to have and the Church ought to keep Him there. If a person denies Jesus came in the flesh, they are a deceiver and an anti-Christ. That is what the Word of God tells us. By the very resurrection of Jesus Christ, it enables us to see Jesus as He really is and for what He is. That is God in the flesh.

Without Jesus, there is no good news. There is no hope for everlasting life. There is no freedom from the slavery of sin. People can only take hold of the Gospel through Jesus Christ. By receiving God’s gracious gift of salvation, and it is a gift that is secured through His Son and by obeying Jesus through faith, is what we must understand and what they were understanding. Once they understood that, they didn’t want to let go of it. You can’t work for a gift or it’s no longer a gift. You have to receive it. Without doing anything, receiving it and believing it is what the Gospel is, and that is what they were understanding.

What were the false teachers doing? You have to do this, this, and this to be right with God. Paul is saying no, you don’t have to do that. What you have to do is understand the grace of God. Grace means that God is giving you what you do not deserve. What do we deserve? We deserve God’s wrath and punishment for sin. We don’t really deserve anything, but here it says that He has given us what we don’t deserve, and what is that? That is His forgiveness based on Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. You add nothing to it, and nothing can be added to it.

Do you know what that means? That in Christ we already have full knowledge. Look at Colossians 2:2-3. It says this,

² that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is Christ Himself, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That Christians have received a knowledge that is full, deep, complete, and the Gospel reveals the knowledge about the deepest things of God. Without it, man would know nothing. Without God’s revelation, man would know nothing. In fact, in chapter one you will find that Paul and Epaphras, the pastor of this church, is going to pray for the people. This is a prayer we ought to pray for each other. Notice in Colossians 1:9-10,

⁹ For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

And for what reason? Verse 10,

¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

The Gospel must not only be heard, but the Gospel must be understood. If it’s not understood, it cannot bear fruit. It must be understood to bear fruit. Why? Somebody who has understanding of the Gospel means that I must be looking for fruit and you must be looking for fruit. I also have this desire now to want to continue to grow in that understanding.

The Word of God is brought to us so we hear it then we get an understanding, without the Spirit of God we will not get that understanding, and then where does it lead us to? It leads us to continue to learn. Look at Colossians 1:7, the Gospel must not only be heard and understood, but it must be learned. It says this in verse 7,

⁷ Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

We see here that Paul is saying, listen, you learned it from your pastor. Unlike the false teachers, the Lord has given many faithful teachers to the church. You know what’s interesting when you’re reading through the book of Colossians? Paul mentions around 12 people in this small epistle. Why do you think he does that? Because it’s not about one teacher, it’s about many teachers, and many teachers who have many gifts. He talks about Timothy, Epaphras, Tychicus, Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, Luke, Demas, Archippus, and then he mentions a woman who has a church in her house. He is saying, listen there are many people who are bearing fruit in different ways because the Gospel is alive, and it has changed people from all cultures, and brought them all together. God is using them to build up the Church, that’s what He is doing.

The next Epistle that is very similar to Colossians is Ephesians. In Ephesians it says the same thing. What does it say? It says that God gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). For what reason? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service for the building up of the body of Christ. For what? And where does that lead us? To a mature group of people. They’re no longer children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness of deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:14).

You know who is behind all of that false religion and deceitful scheming? Satan is because Satan doesn’t want you, once you come to Christ, to know any more than you know. He wants you to go to your other things and to be interested in all of these other good things, but don’t learn more, because then you become a threat to his kingdom. Part of the responsibility of the local church is to go into the kingdom of darkness and to take people out of his kingdom with the Gospel of light, Jesus Christ.

If you look at Colossians 1:23, it says this,

²³ If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Same thing he is saying here. Don’t move away from the gospel! Keep growing in the Gospel. Keep hearing the Gospel. Keep gaining understanding, so that you would become strong that nobody could sway you as to whether this is true or not. The people say, well I don’t believe the Bible is true or I don’t believe that’s the only way, there’s many ways to God. You have to be firm in your faith to say, no that’s not truth, truth is that Jesus is the only way and there is no other way. You are so firm that nobody could move you from that position.

This guy, Epaphras, you don’t hear much about him as this is the first time he’s mentioned here in Scripture. He was a pastor-teacher, and notice what was said about him, he was a beloved bond-servant and faithful servant of Christ. This disciple was so committed to Christ that he’s called a servant. Of course, the word servant here is Doulos, which is slave. He is literally a slave of Christ. The condition of a disciple is faith in Christ and obedience to His commands. A disciple obeys His words because of their commitment to Jesus personally, and renounces all of the material comforts which may hinder their allegiance to Him. Where Jesus said in Matthew 10:37,

³⁷ He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

That means that this disciple, Epaphras, has bonded himself willingly to the Master-Teacher for a lifetime relationship. Christ has taken possession of him and owns him body and soul. That should be the same for us. That Jesus always remains Lord of all of His disciples. As time progresses, the disciple becomes more conformed to the image of Christ that they are now totally identified with Him that nobody could move them.

You know that in the New Testament epistles, the disciples became known as the Christ ones. We call it Christian today. A real Christian is a disciple, and a disciple is a real Christian, and a disciple is a learner—somebody who wants to know.

Fulfilling ones call to discipleship is the goal of the Christian. Wherein a degenerate person who has corrupted the image of God is now restored to that image by the miracle of regeneration which transforms the person into a Christian. One who is like Christ. The degenerate becomes the disciple and bears the image of his Master to the world.

Epaphras not only taught his disciples a systematic instruction of the Gospel, but he also continued to pray for their spiritual growth and maturity as addressed in Colossians 4:12, where it says,

¹² Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

That is the prayer for us. That we would hear. That we would understand. That we would constantly be a learner. We never stop being a learner in the Church of God.

They learned the Gospel from their pastor and the Spirit of God, of course, produced the results. What was the results? The results are that he said, Epaphras also informed me of your love in the Spirit. You know what that says? That the Word of God is understood and is bearing fruit. Your love in the Spirit is that you love people that you didn’t love people. That you love Christ whom you didn’t love before. That you love the Word of God which you didn’t love before. You love those things.

The Gospel makes all things new, but it must be heard, and it must be understood, and it must be taught until you and I stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. That’s what the Gospel does for us.

I want to just mention this, we ought to be hearing the truth and not be careless about our intake of spiritual meat but use discernment. The word of God says in 1 John 4:1,

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Growing in this discernment. According to the proverb in the gospel of Mark and Luke, that we read, it says there,

Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

Here the means of measuring was hearing. This means that evaluating whether you have good hearing or inadequate hearing. This can be really practically illustrated as the result of the preaching of the word of God. Those who have no interest in the Word of God find it uninteresting and those who desire to find fault find many faults in the Word of God. Those who seek solid truth find it and learn it. Those who hunger search for food, and they also find nourishment. Those who bring faith receive assurance. Those who come joyfully are made glad. But no person finds blessing by hearing error nor by careless, forgetful hearing of truth.

There is a promise that the Lord gives us in Mark 4 that whoever has, to him more shall be given. That is talking about hearing properly. Whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Superficial hearing is always bad. How people treat the instruction of Jesus is very important. Jesus wants the disciples to bring a full measure of attention, an eagerness to learn, and if so, God will return to them an even fuller measure of the precious saving truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is always expanding and growing and we’re understanding more and more things about it.

The measure you give in your hearing is the measure you get. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you, but God will give even more to those who hear properly. He will give more desire to hear. He will give more understanding in what you hear. We will be convinced more of what we hear when we hear it. We will have more personal possession of blessings from what we hear. We will delight of hearing that old, old message of the glorious Gospel, and more of the practical benefits from what we hear.

God gives more to those who value what they have, so we ought to hear. It is the wisdom that comes to us from God. We have to hear well. God’s teaching deserves our deepest attention, and we ought to hear often. We should waste no Lord’s Day nor really any of the teachings that happen in the church, we should not be absent from them. We ought to hear better, that you will grow less worldly and more holy and more joy-filled and more faithful when you are a faithful hearer.

That’s where it starts. It always starts in hearing and then it leads to understanding and it leads to more learning. That’s going to be the life of a Christian. When you do that, you will find that the blessing of God comes our way, and that we actually do mature, and understand, and do now live out our faith. We discover mostly that everything is new for a Christian. Everything is new.

What are some things from this section that we could learn? I think one of the things is that gratitude, being thankful, intensifies our soul-sense of dependance on God. Everything we’re thankful for comes from God Himself. Also, we should thank God for others. More on account of their spiritual than their temporal welfare. Thank you Lord that You saved this person. Thank you Lord that You’re growing this person. It’s exciting to see growth in a person, isn’t it? It’s exciting to see that.

Also, the essential character of faith, love, and hope should be strengthened and increased with exercise. You have to exercise. We need to be casting as much Gospel seed to all kinds of people, whoever they are, and we should never be hindered by casting that seed to people who are so different from us that we stay away from them. No, we should cast the seed, while keeping in mind that throughout church history there has been a vast amount of preaching, but the result has always been the same. Some people believe and their heart is penetrated with the seed of the Gospel, they bear fruit, they grow, and they become part of the Church, but some do not. When the Gospel goes out it’s going out for salvation or judgment.

This morning, just look at your own life and ask honestly to yourself, are you prepared to listen every time the Word of God is opened and you’re reading? Even when you’re reading your daily Bible. Are you falling asleep? Do you know after you read it, what you read? Those are the things that you know you’re becoming more disciplined and you’re listening less to your flesh. You’re ready in your mind, if you have to get up early, to be able to remove the distractions so that you can read, think, and meditate on the Word of God. That’s what you ought to do.

Sometimes we have good intentions to do those things, but we don’t do them. The flesh wins out. Then, because of that, we’re not ready. Our ears are not ready to receive truth. Our heart cannot receive it or understand it because we haven’t heard it right. Then we don’t practice it. Then what happens is that we don’t feel like anything’s happened in our life and all of the newness falls away because we’re not doing the simplest things that God has given us to grow us. Ears to hear, let him hear.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank You again for these simple truths, but ones that we always need to hear over and over again. Lord, make us people that really are attentive to the Word of God. Lord, as the Spirit of God is living in us, I pray the Spirit of God would give us understanding of the Word which will excite our mind and our heart and our thoughts so we can meditate upon it. Then Lord, that we would look at ourselves and say, now where can I serve? Where can I bear fruit? As the Spirit of God is working in us. I pray, Lord, that the process of hearing, understanding, and learning would never stop, and that we would always be ready and excited about the Word of God to be able to turn around and tell it to someone else. Lord, please do that and make us those kinds of people. I pray in Christ’ name, amen.